Sheet feeder for collator



Aug. 7, 1951 P. L. BARENSFIELD ETAL 2,562,999

SHEET FEEDER FOR COLLATOR 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 25, 1949 JNVENroRs,

P401 Z. MRt'MSf/ELD MIC/M5 A. NADEIQ li jg A TTOEIVf/d Aug. 7, 1951 P.BARENSFIELD ET AL 2,552,999

SHEET FEEDER FOR COLLATOR Filed Feb. 25, 1949 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 /.9-INVENTORJ, F. 4 PAUL L. BAEEN-S'F/EZD MICHAEL A. NAME 1951 P. 1..BARENSFIELD ET AL 2,562,999

SHEET FEEDER FOR COLLATOR 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Feb. 25, 1949 IN VENTORS- PAUL L. BABE/7677640 MIC/ A62 A. NAME 27 @zzwa A TTOIQIVEKSPatented Aug. 7, 1951 SHEET FEEDER FOR COLLATOR Paul L. Barensfield,Parma, and Michael A. Nader, North Olmstead, Ohio Application February25, 1949, Serial No. 78,374

4 Claims. 1

The general object of the present invention is the provision of acollating mechanism wherein stacks of loose sheet paper can be fed toprinting machines, folding machines, book assemblers, addressingmachines, etc. with certainty and uniformity.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a sheet feedingmechanism wherein the top sheet of a stack to be fed can be moveddirectly from the top of the stack and be fed directly to anothermechanism without necessitating the utilization of suction grippers andkindred sheet grippers.

A still further object of our invention is the provision of a sheetfeeding mechanism of such mechanical arrangement that a plurality of themechanisms can be associated to be driven from a common actuating meansand effect the collation of a plurality of sheets of material, such asprinted paper sheets to be assembled in proper order.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing detailed description of preferred forms of embodiment of theinvention, reference being made to the accompanying drawings wherein- Inthe drawings. Fig. 1 shows a side elevation of a sheet feeding unitincorporating the features of our invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the unit shown in Figure 1;

Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the feeding end of the unit;

Fig. 4 is an elevational view of the opposite end of the unit;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line 5-5of Figure 2;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view of the ends of the sheet feeding rolls andillustrating the floating bearing mounting of one of the rolls; and

Fig. 7 is an elevational view of an arrangement of four of the unitsdisposed to operate upon four stacks of sheet material for collatingpurposes.

Our invention contemplates the use of the top of a stack of sheetmaterial to be fed to another station or machine, sheet by sheet, forgauging purposes whereby the top sheet of the stack will always bedisposed in substantially the same plane relative to a rotary uppersheet feeding means regardless of the decrease in the quantity or sizeof the stack. The action is such that the bottom plane of the stackchanges constantly and in accord with the progressively decreasingheight of the stack. The top of the stack is urged against an adjustablyfixed stop or block during each cycle of operation of the mechanism withsubstantially constant upward thrust or pressure and we prefer to obtainthis upward thrust against the stop by a resilient means in the form ofsprings acting on the stack tray or carrier.

The tray with the stack is depressed a uniform distance relative to thestop during the feeding action of a rotary feed mixer. A positivelyacting means effecting a uniform depression of the tray and stack actson compensating cams on the tray whereby as the stack is lessened inheight the top plane of the stack will always be disposed in the sameplane relative to the rotary path of the sheet wiper feeding means atthe time the sheet feeding action takes place. A snubbing action isexerted on the stack side by a yieldable means as the top sheet is movedfrom the stack.

Referring to the drawings, our invention is illustrated as beingincorporated in a suitable frame structure comprising side plates orpanels I5 and I5 connected primarily by an end member ill at the feedend of the device, cross-member l9 at the rear end of the device andintermediate cross-member 20. All three of these cross-members arelocated near the bottom of the frame structure. The upper parts of theside members 85, I6 are connected by a bridge member 2! which comprisesa support for an adjustable stop means, the function of which will bedescribed later.

The platform for supporting the work or trays of sheets to be handled bythe machine comprises a vertically movable platform member 23 which issupported or stabilized by pairs of rocking lever links 25 located atthe rear end thereof and a like pair of links 26 at the forward endthereof and supported on rocker shafts. The upper ends of the links areprovided with rollers 28 operating in cam slots 29 formed in thedepending flanges of angle irons 30 secured to the under side of theplatform, the particular camming characteristics of which will bediscussed later in greater detail. The lower ends of the links 25 and 2Bare secured to parallel rocker shaft members 3! and 32 having on theforward ends thereof gear members 35 and 36 respectively. The gearmembers have the same number of gear teeth. The shaft members 3| and 32are actuatecl through rocking motions in a manner to be described, butwhen not being positively rocked are free to respond to the action ofspring members 3B abutting the under sides of the support 23 at thesides thereof. The spring members 38 rest on brackets 39 secured to theside members l5, l6 and tend to maintain the platform 23 in a normallyupward position. Thus, the loaded tray and the platform and the pairs oflinks 25 and 26 and the rocker shafts are all moved in one direction ofoperation by reason of the spring members 38, the latter being ofpredetermined strength.

The stop against which the top surface of the stacked sheet abuts byreason of the action of the springs 38 comprises a ertically adjustableblock 40, suspended on adjusting screws 4| in threaded engagement withthe frame or bridge member 2|.

We provide means for positively rocking the shafts whereby the pairs ofrocker links 25. 2B are swung through a predetermined arc to lower theplatform 23 positively against the influence of the supporting springmembers 38. This means, including an intermittently acting clutch, to bedescribed, is coordinated with the rotative movement of a feed wiper arm44 carrying on the free end thereof resilient wiper members 45. Theseupper members engage the top sheet of the stack in an arcuate wipingaction to wipe the top sheet from the top of the stack forwardly to apair of feed rolls 46 and 41. The upper feed roll 45, preferably isformed of rubber, and the companion lower roll 41 may also have a likeformation. The upper roll 45 has the shaft 48 thereof supported insuitable bearings 49, secured to the outside faces of the frame membersl5, l6 respectively. The lower feed roll 41 is supported by shiftablebearing members 50, 5| suitably retained on the side members l5, l6 andurged upwardly to bring the lower roll 41 into intimate contact with theroll 46 by spring members 52. The wiper feed arm 44 is mounted on a topshaft 56 which is supported by hearing members 51 situated on theoutside of the frame members 15, IS. The shaft 53 has a sprocket member59 mounted on an outer end thereof to drive a chain 60 which passes overa sprocket 6| mounted upon the shaft 48 of the top feed roll 46. Motoror manual power may be applied to either of the shafts 48 or 56 but weprefer to apply the driving force to another shaft 65, the function ofwhich will now be described.

The rocking movement of the pairs of link arms 25 and 25 and thesupporting shafts thereof is positively effected by a clutch and cammechanism driven by the shaft 65. The shaft 65 preferably is the powershaft and has a sprocket 35 fixed thereon driving a chain 61 whichextends over a driven sprocket 68 mounted on the wiper shaft 56. Theshaft 65 has a cam 10 fixed thereon, the cam acting on a roller Hcarried by a rocker arm 12 projecting radially upwardly from a hubstructure 13 which is freely mounted on the forward end of the rockershaft 32. This free hub structure 13 comprises part of a friction clutchincluding fiber disks 14 and a friction clutch member 15, which maycomprise part of one of the rocker shaft gears 36. The member 36-15 isfixed to shaft 32 by a pin 16 or by other suitable means. When the hubstructure I3 is axially shifted the clutch is opened and closed and thisclosing and opening of the clutch arrangement is effected by a pair ofroller members 18 mounted on fixed studs 19 which are supported by abearing block 80. The rollers 19 act against the outer end face of themember 13, the latter having cam formations whereby a slight rockingmovement of the member 13 by rocker arm 12 forces the member I3 from theright toward the left as viewed in Fig. 1 to thus cause the fiber diskmembers to be pinched against the flanged formation 15. The width of theface of the cam 10 is such as to permit this axial shifting of therocker arm and its roller H, and the roller ll of the rocker arm 12 ismaintained in contact with the face of the cam HI by a spring member 82suitably attached at a radial point to the clutch hub 13. The oppositeend of the spring member 82 is connected to the side frame member I5.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the platform 23 may support any desirableform of tray carrying the work. We have shown a sheet metal tray 83having side walls 83a and open at both ends. The tray is provided with adownwardly extending flange 83b at the rear end thereof for maintainingthe tray in position. The side walls of the tray may be adjustablerelative to the width of the stack, as will be obvious. Mounted upon oneof the tray side walls is a snubber pad 24 (see Fig. 2) carried by aflat spring member 21 secured to a side wall of the tray. The pad may berubber or other suitable material which, when yieldingly urged againstthe side edge of the sheets in the stack, will exert some restraininginfluence upon the sheets in the stack so the top sheet is extractediigierefrom by the wiping action of the member The operation of themechanism described is as follows. A stack of sheets in the tray 33 arepositioned on the platform 23, the platform 23 being forced down againstthe influence of the springs 38 a sufficient amount to get the stack ofsheets beneath the stop block 40. By proper adjustment of the screwmembers 4| the location of the top plane of the stack relative to theshaft 56 and its rotating sheet feed wiper arm 44 and sheet feed wipermembers 45 can then be determined for each class of sheet material to behandled. The shape of the cam 10, which effects the rocking of the pairsof link members 25 and 2B is such that the rollers of the link memberswill be positively rocked outwardly and downwardly to positively drawdown the platform stucture 23. The distance of this downward recessionis determined to have a definite relation to the arc of sweep of thewiper members 45 as the shaft 56 is rotated in direction as indicated bythe arrows in Fig. 5. The top sheet is wiped from the top of the stackand this are of contact is suflicient to cause the forward edge of thesheet to be advanced into engagement with the two feed rolls 46, 41which thereafter completely eject the sheet.

As the wiper members 45 swing forwardly and upwardly out of the way, thedepressed part of the cam 10 reaches the roller ll, thus permitting themember 13 to be swung counter-clockwise about the shaft 32 as viewed inFlg. 3, by the action of the spring 82. The cam depressions of the hubmember are thus presented to the rollers 18 and the hub member 13 abutson the bearing block 80, thus preventing further turning movement byreason of the spring 82. The springs 38 cause the platform and stackthereon to be moved vertically upwardly until the top sheet of the stackis brought against the stop block 40.

It should be noted that the shape of the slots 23 is somewhat irregularand these slots, the faces of which are cams, are non-coincident incurvature with any arcs struck from the axes or the centers of theshafts 3| and 32, see Fig. 4. Since the rocking movement of the linkarms 25 is in the nature of a part of a crank motion, proper camsurfaces can be developed, regardless of the varying positions of thelink arms occasioned by the variation in the height of the stack, theplatform and the tray and the stack therein can always be retracteddownwardly substantially the same distance so that the effect of wipingarc of the sheet wiper members will always be substantially the same forany given work set up. Furthermore, it has been found that the wiping orfeeding action of the members 45 can be taking place while there isstill some downward motion of the platform taking place.

In Fig. 7 we have illustrated more or less diagrammatically thepyramiding of four of the sheet feeder units hereinbefore described andwhich can be coordinated whereby the rotation of the wiper arms 44 ofeach unit can be adjusted relative to the rotative points of the arms ofthe other feed units. Thus, collating of the sheet material may beeffected quite readily. This modification, it will be understood, wouldhave suitable means on the frames of the units so that units A, B, C, D.etc. can be operatively superposed as shown in Fig. 7 of the drawingsand arranged on a pedestal or base IM. A chain drive extends to the camshaft 65 of the first unit A from a motor llll. A chain drive I02 isthen arranged between the feed wiper shaft 56 of the first unit, the camshaft 65 of the second unit B and then to the upper shaft 56 of thesecond unit B, etc., in the form of a trianguular chain drive. A chutestructure I04 at the feeding front of the units is provided with sheetguiding vanes I06 for directing the sheets downwardly in proper order toa tray I08. The order of selection of the sheets can be obtained byadjusting the sprockets of the drives of the respective units.

Speed and dependability are the essence of the merit of the generalclass of mechanisms to which our improvements are directed. We obtainboth of these characteristics regardless of paper texture, thickness andsurface finish.

We claim:

1. A sheet handling apparatus comprising, a frame; a sheet supportingplatform mounted on the frame and adapted to support a stack of sheets,an element for engaging the topmost sheet of the stack on the platformand for moving the sheet laterally, said element comprising a rotary armhaving a resilient sheet engaging end for removing successive sheets bya rotary wiping action; a stop means in the frame engageable by theuppermost sheet of the sheets carried by said platform; mechanismintermittently efiec tive in synchronic relation to said rotary elementfor resiliently urging said platform upwardly to cause the topmost sheetto engage with said stop means whereby said stop means positions theelevation of the platform during that part of the cycle that saidelement is out of engagement with a sheet and positively driven meansfor lowering said platform from said elevation and for maintaining theplatform lowered during the part of the cycle that said element engagesand slides the uppermost sheet, said last named means comprisingpositively operated parallel shafts with link arms thereon connected tothe platform and a clutch and gear mechanism for rocking the shafts andarms.

2. A sheet handling apparatus comprising, a frame; a sheet supportingplatform mounted on the frame; a rotary arm with a free resilient endfor engaging the topmost sheet on the platform and moving the sheetlaterally, said rotary arm being operable cyclically for removingsuccessive sheets in a continuous operation; a stop block supported onthe frame and engageable by the uppermost sheet of a stack of sheetscarried by said platform; and spring members for resiliently urging theplatform and the stack upwardly for engaging the topmost sheet with saidstop block whereby said stop block positions the elevation of theplatform during that part of the cycle that said rotary arm is out ofengagement with a sheet, a positively driven means for lowering saidplatform from said stop block comprising a rotary cam synchronized withthe rotary arm, a pair of gear-connected shafts, means operated by thecam for rocking the shafts including an intermittently operated clutchmechanism drivingly connecting a rocker arm mechanism operated by thecam to one of the shafts, and rocker linkage means connecting the shaftsto the platform.

3. A sheet handling apparatus comprising a frame; a sheet-supportingplatform mounted on the frame; a rotary arm element for engaging thetopmost sheet of a stack on the platform and for moving the sheetlaterally, said element being operable for removing successive sheetsduring continued rotary motion thereof; feed rolls adapted to receiveand guide sheets displaced from the stack by said element; a stop meansengageable by the uppermost sheet of a stack of sheets carried by saidplatform; means for resiliently urging said platform upwardly forcausing engagement of the topmost sheet with said stop means wherebysaid stop means limits the elevation of the stack; and an intermittentlydriven means for lowering said platform against the action of saidresilient means from said elevation and maintaining the platformdisplacement substantially in synchronism with the vertical displacementof the sheet-engaging portion of said rotary arm element during a partof the rotation that said element engages and slides the uppermost sheetto the feed rolls, said driven means comprising positively operatedparallel shafts with link arms thereon connected to the platform and aclutch and gear mechanism for rocking the shafts and arms.

4. A sheet handling apparatus comprising a frame; a sheet-supportingplatform mounted on the frame; a rotary arm element for engaging thetopmost sheet of a stack on the platform and for moving the sheetlaterally, said element being operable for removing successive sheetsduring continued rotary motion thereof; feed rolls adapted to receiveand guide sheets displaced from the stack by said element; a stop meansengageable by the uppermost sheets of a stack of sheets carried by saidplatform; means for resiliently urging said platform upwardly forcausing engagement of the topmost sheet with said stop means wherebysaid stop means limits the elevation of the stack; an intermittentdriving means for lowering said platform against the action of saidresilient means from said elevation and maintaining the platformdisplacement substantially in synchronism with the vertical displacementof the sheet-engaging portion of said rotary arm element during the partof the rotation that said element engages and slides the uppermost sheetto the feed rolls, said driving means comprising a rotary camsynchronized with the rotary arm, a pair of gear-connected shafts, meansoperated by the cam for rocking the shafts including an intermittentlyoperated 7 v clutch mechanism drivingly connecting a. rocker UNITEDSTATES PATENTS arm mechanism operated by the cam to one of Number NameDate the shafts, and rocker linkage means connecting 1,240,462 MccormackSept. 13 1917 the Shafts to the 9191mm 1,551,772 Phelps Sept,1:1925 PAULBARENSFIELD- 5 1,563,417 Wright Dec. 1, 1925 MICHAEL NADm- 1,850,108Hunter Mar. 22, 1932 1,865,750 Elwell July 5, 1932 REFERENCES CITED2,112,341 Klemm Mar. 29, 1938 The following references are of record inthe 2,303,804 Dager Jan. 19, 1943 file of this patent: 10 2,373,746Dager Apr. 1'7, 1945

